Burundi

Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly agricultural which accounts for about 35% of GDP and employs more than 90% of the population. Burundi’s primary exports are coffee and tea, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings, though exports are a relatively small share of GDP. Burundi’s export earning - and its ability to pay for imports - rests primarily on weather conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi minority, 14% of the population, dominates the coffee trade. An ethnic-based war that lasted for over a decade resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced more than 48,000 refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 140,000 others internally. Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in 15 adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short supply. Burundi’s GDP grew around 4% annually in 2006-09. Political stability and the end of the civil war have improved aid flows and economic activity has increased, but underlying weaknesses - a high poverty rate, poor education rates, a weak legal system, and low administrative capacity - risk undermining planned economic reforms. Burundi will continue to remain heavily dependent on aid from bilateral and multilateral donors; the delay of funds after a corruption scandal cut off bilateral aid in 2007 reduced government’s revenues and its ability to pay salaries. Burundi joined the East African Community, which should boost Burundi’s regional trade ties, and received $700 million in debt relief in 2009. Instability spilling over from eastern Congo-Kinshasa and the ban on minerals smuggled across Burundi’s border will be the main challenges to economic growth.

$3.418 billion (2010 est.)

$3.29 billion (2009 est.)

$3.178 billion (2008 est.)

$1.469 billion (2010 est.)

3.9% (2010 est.)

3.5% (2009 est.)

4.5% (2008 est.)

$300 (2010 est.)

$300 (2009 est.)

$300 (2008 est.)

4.245 million (2007)

NA%

68% (2002 est.)

42.4 (1998)

25.1% of GDP (2010 est.)

7.2% (2010 est.)

10.7% (2009 est.)

10% (31 December 2009)

10.08% (31 December 2008)

14.08% (31 December 2009 est.)

16.52% (31 December 2008 est.)

$329.3 million (31 December 2010 est)

$293.6 million (31 December 2009 est)

$568.3 million (31 December 2010 est.)

$506.7 million (31 December 2009 est.)

$465.7 million (31 December 2010 est.)

$415.2 million (31 December 2009 est.)

$NA

coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc (tapioca); beef, milk, hides

light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of imported components; public works construction; food processing

7% (2010 est.)

92 million kWh (2007 est.)

125.6 million kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

40 million kWh; note - supplied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2007 est.)

0 bbl/day (2009 est.)

3,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

0 bbl/day (2007 est.)

2,495 bbl/day (2007 est.)

0 bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (1 January 2010 est.)

-$136 million (2010 est.)

-$127 million (2009 est.)

$71 million (2010 est.)

$68 million (2009 est.)

coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides

Germany 21.6%, Switzerland 14.86%, Belgium 9.32%, Sweden 8.94%, Pakistan 5.82% (2009)

$336 million (2010 est.)

$275 million (2009 est.)

capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs

Saudi Arabia 16.87%, Belgium 11.17%, Uganda 8.62%, Kenya 7.57%, China 5.66%, France 5.35%, Germany 4.46%, India 4.24%, Tanzania 4.21% (2009)

$320 million (31 December 2010 est.)

$323 million (31 December 2009 est.)

$1.2 billion (2003)

Burundi francs (BIF) per US dollar - 1,250.75 (2010), 1,230.18 (2009), 1,198 (2008), 1,065 (2007), 1,030 (2006)